As We Soar On The Wings of Freedom
by Fesd5
Summary: 'But surely someone who had loved Aldora more than Felix had himself wouldn't destroy the person they knew?...Aldora's lifeless body fell limp at his feet. She was dead.' [Peter Pan/OC Rated T for mildly violent scenes. Slight Felix/OC] Aldora used to be a princess, contained within walls of the palace, but when she escapes things may begin to get exciting, or very dangerous.
1. Prologue- Lost Wings

**Prologue**

 **Lost Wings**

" _Don't you worry, evil Pan; your plan will work, your plan, your plan!_ " it sang, a maniac giggle falling from its lips as it crouched in the corner, concealed by the thick shadows that coated the cave in black. Not even a drip could break the silence when no one was with the creature, nothing could break the silence that had made the creature insane. " _But when I escape you shall be doomed; and then you will be also entombed!_ "

"Be quiet you crazy old hag; Peter Pan can never be destroyed!" said the ignorant masculine voice of someone who adored the person he was speaking about. Standing towards the front of the cave near the entrance, a tall and lanky boy clad in a knee-length cloak that swirled around him, was holding a torch high above his head. His knee-high boots were laced up and his muddied trousers were tucked into them to prevent them from snagging unhelpfully on anything. His cowl, although low over his face, could not disguise the gnarled scar on his face and several tufts of unkempt blonde hair poked out from under his hood.

Holding up a hand to silence him, Pan glared at the boy. "Be quiet Felix," he hissed, taking a hesitant step into the darkness.

Dirty-blonde hair swept aside, there was nothing to hide Pan's mischievous emerald eyes that had captured many a heart before. He was tall but not nearly as tall as his follower, Felix, who was at current leaning forward slightly as he stretched his arm to hold the torch further ahead of him. Pan had an athletic body over which he wore clothing that was made up of greens and browns all quilted together, and a dark bandanna was wrapped around his neck to chase away the damp cold of the cave. Wearing knee-high boots that were laced tightly and cuffs tied around his wrists, almost every part of skin was covered except for his face.

Taking a hesitant step forward, Felix cringed as the wet slap echoed off the walls and Pan shot him a furious glare, telling him to retreat before something went wrong. Felix did so and took several backwards steps towards the entrance, his hands tightening their grasp on his wooden cudgel that was slung over his shoulder.

A yelp shot out and Felix's cudgel was being brandished in front of him within moments, his grey eyes searching the darkness for his leader who had been swallowed by the shadows. A shift in the black told Felix where the creature was and within moments he had sprinted into the darkness and bowled the creature to the ground, the torch falling from his grasp and rolling out of reach. Pan, who had previously been pinned by the shoulders, was finally released as he leapt to his feet.

Pan had cast a spell on the cave to prevent anyone from using magic within its boundaries and it was clear he was now regretting that decision.

Crouching over the creature, Felix was taken aback when he met a pair of all too familiar blue eyes that were glittering in the dark, staring wide-eyed at him from the ground. Releasing the creature's shoulders, Felix stumbled away and watched in terror as the creature rose to its feet. Pan had caught the torch and was holding it towards the creature's face, proving Felix's suspicions.

"How will I find it? Where is it? Where is _he_?" Pan demanded, waving the torch back and forth, the creature's eyes following it hungrily as if it truly was an animal.

Silence followed, not even a drip to prevent anyone going insane like the creature had, but surely Felix had gone insane also? Surely the face in front of him wasn't...

"A-Aldora?" he stuttered, the word tasting like dried honey that was old and unused. "B-but it can't be you! Y-you're not here; you're h-home! A-Aldora had wings, y-you don't have w-wings!" But her eyes told him all he needed to know: his old friend, the one whom he had been led to believe was back at home in the Enchanted Forest, was in fact the seer imprisoned in the Echo Caves by Pan over the last twenty years. It was enough to drive anyone insane, but not enough for someone to lose their wings, surely? "W-where are your w-wings, Aldora?"

After a moment, her blue eyes left his and instead turned on Pan who had been examining them as they exchanged words. Felix's stomach knotted.

Surely not? Surely the person he had adored for years, surely the person he had scrambled to obey, surely the person he had dreamed of pleasing hadn't stolen his old friend's wings. Surely not...

"He did it; Pan did it," she confirmed, causing Felix lean against the wall for support, eyes locked on something in the black that he wasn't sure was there, all colour draining from his already pale face.

Was it really Aldora? Aldora had had wings black as midnight and hair red as the bleeding sun; Aldora had had skin as tanned as a shepherd boy's and lips as soft as a feather. This girl, this _creature_ , brought to life by the dim and eerie golden light of the torch, had limp orange hair, skin paler than the moon and lips that were chapped and bleeding. However, if he really squinted, if he _really tried_ to see, he could see a slight hunch between her shoulder blades, and if he looked _even harder_ he could see the black stumps that had once connected her wings to her body. This trembling, naked pale form was not the Aldora he knew, but it was Aldora all the same, and her pain and misery had been caused by the same person Felix had been falling over himself to obey.

He did it.

But surely the person who had loved Aldora even more than Felix had himself wouldn't destroy the person they knew? A person beautiful and brave and strong?

Pan did it.

Felix knew the truth, he knew what he had to do, he knew it would haunt him forever but he had sworn an allegiance, sworn to protect, so he approached Pan, ripped the dagger from the sheathe and turned on his victim.

Pan would pay.

And then he plunged his dagger into their heart, deep until the blood seeped from the wound into a river under his feet, and a pair of familiar, pain-filled eyes met his.

"Well done, Felix," Pan muttered from behind him.

Aldora's lifeless body fell limp at his feet. She was dead.

* * *

 **I know it's sad and kind of depressing and scary, but it had to happen for my story! Sorry :( For the rest of the story it will be Aldora's story: how she arrived in Neverland, her relationship with each of the boys, why Pan trapped her in the Echo Caves... You get the picture. I'll try and post again soon!**


	2. One- Castle on a Cloud

**One**

 **Castle on a Cloud**

A golden castle, cradled by the soft material that made up clouds, was where young Aldora lived but she wouldn't say it was her home, in fact it was everything _but_ her home. Often she would refer to it as her 'prison' or her 'temporary living space' but never her home, for nothing was there that made up her home. Her home - her real home - had once been one of the many cottages built on the clouds of the sunset that could only be seen when cast in shadow by the bleeding red sun, standing there as a beautiful silhouette on the horizon. Now, she was imprisoned within cold, golden walls that were set upon a white vapor that remained in view throughout the whole day, but never once could the castle seen by the people who passed beneath. Rarely was she allowed out and when she was, she was forbidden to visit the land below or fly by her own wings; she was to travel on the back of a winged mare surrounded by guards on similar steeds, doomed to only watch and never touch the ground beneath.

Many a time, Aldora had pondered how exactly she had ended up in the golden prison that she was condemned to live in until she was old enough to fly away and claim her own cloud, far away and nestled on the horizon so that it could be seen in the light of the setting sun, just as her old home had been. Sometimes, her more reasonable side showed through, telling her that her mother wasn't the only one to blame and that if Aldora hadn't been in the wrong place at the wrong time her father might not have died; but most of the time, she told herself bitterly that her mother had fated her to a life of imprisonment after marrying the King of the Angels.

"Aldora, sweetheart, our guests are arriving; will you come to the ballroom?" her mother's voice was muffled but the new found confidence in her words didn't go unnoticed by her only daughter. Aldora had to admit that it was nice to have her mother speaking up for herself and not cowering in the shadow of society, but had they not both been happy on their little cloud with Aldora's father, living a simple but nice life?

Soft footsteps fading away told the young girl that her mother was leaving and so she hurriedly shrugged off the white gown, lined with golden thread, that she had rapidly wrapped around herself when she had heard the knock on the wooden door. Instead of a soft white tunic, embroidered with heavy gems and swirling patterns, Aldora was wearing a pair of fur-lined boots, a loose shirt she had borrowed off a servant and a pair of loose grey trousers. She had planned to visit the human world, making sure to wear the beautiful golden necklace her father had given her when she was little and her wings had begun to grow, but now that the guests were arriving she knew her escape wouldn't go as smoothly as she'd hoped.

Grabbing the necklace off her bedside table, Aldora clawed at the braids the maids had forced into her wild red locks, letting them fall in their waist-length waves as they had before those old women had gotten their gnarled hands on it. Taking a moment to look around the room, she glared bitterly at the engraved white wardrobe, the enormous white bed, the impressive white vanity table, and finally her eyes landed on the fireplace, but not so much the fireplace as the little chest sat on top of the frame.

The little chest had been the last thing her mother had given her with the money she had worked to get, three months or so before the incident with Aldora's father and her mother's marriage to the king. It was small, simple and remarkably beautiful, costing more coins than a cottage on a cloud. But what Aldora loved most about it wasn't its cost, nor its beauty, nor anything else; what she loved about it was that her mother had put sweat and blood into getting the gift for her daughter and the idea that her mother worked hard for something made Aldora feel warm inside. It was this feeling that had chained her to her room in the palace, the feeling of her mother truly loving her, but this time she would not let it hold her back.

Stuffing the chest into her small satchel of things, Aldora leapt through the doors onto her balcony, unfurling her wings and taking off before anyone could warn the king about her departure - nor her mother for that matter. She glided over her homeland, glaring at it with more bitterness than she had ever known for this was the land that had prevented her from ever meeting the townsfolk of the valley below, of the wingless people who were so fascinating.

Aldora had mapped out her plan perfectly and she was almost certain nothing could go wrong: she had timed her departure so that the guards would be changing shifts and her mother and the king would be too busy to keep an eye on her; she had made sure to wear her necklace so no one from the land below would see her wings and she had chosen to wear male clothes so as to travel swiftly. The only thing that could go wrong was if one of the guests saw her escaping and took after her, for they were under no orders to report to the king and queen first.

It would appear luck was not on her side.

Below, the shouts of the guests as they saw the unique midnight black wings of the princess sailing across the sky rose up causing Aldora to tilt her wings and beat the wind desperately, her blue eyes watching as a pair of angels exchanged words with those who had traveled with them before taking off, their more common white wings reaching out at a proud length. One man Aldora instantly recognized as the recently retired Captain of the Royal Guard, and the other was the king's older brother who had supposedly chosen to give up his title and live as a simple angel on a dawn cloud. Both were old, and therefore experienced but slow.

Directing her wings to lower her down to ground earlier than expected, Aldora scanned both the sky and the land, grateful to see that her two pursers were still alone and gradually slowing due to exhaustion. However, she was still rather high up and she was certain that, even if they couldn't see her wings, the townspeople in the village below would be suspicious of a girl and two old men flying down from the sky and chasing each other. Besides, as far as she could tell, the ex-prince and the ex-Captain didn't have any talismans to hide their gorgeous wings that would appear odd to the people who had none.

Sweeping round in the shape of a horseshoe, Aldora found herself biting her lip anxiously, seeking out a place where she could land safely and not be alone with the two men to capture her and return her to the heavens.

All of a sudden, sweet music reached her and her wings instinctively shifted to allow her to follow the sound, curiosity as well as something else drawing her towards it.

It was a sad tune, the kind of song you'd expect a lonely traveler to play or perhaps someone who had lost a friend or family member, and somehow it felt as if, in Aldora's eyes, it was being played for her long dead father. Lowering herself into a thick cluster of trees, she ignored the men who were fluttering in behind her and instead began to skip towards the sound, memories of her father racing through her head continuously as if on a loop.

Reaching a clearing, she was startled to find ten perhaps twelve young boys prancing around a fire, whooping and hollering with masks on their faces and hoods pulled down. One character caught her eye; he was standing off to the side with a pan flute to his lips and his hood drawn down over his face, a bandanna wrapped around his neck as he tapped his foot absentmindedly along to the song. Approaching him curiously, Aldora dared to forget about her pursers for a moment but the hands that clamped down on her shoulders soon brought her back to reality.

 **What d'you think? I think my chapters are mostly going to be short so sorry if you expected more. What do you think'll happen next? Please comment and favourite if you like it! :)**


	3. Two- Sleipnir

**Two**

 **Sleipnir**

The music came to an abrupt stop, all eyes trained on the magnificent white wings that were folded against the backs of the two angels behind the red-head with invisible black wings. Lowering his pan flute, the piper approached the trio curiously as the boys who had previously been dancing fell in behind him, unsheathing daggers or grabbing sticks from the ground. Aldora whirled around on the spot, struggling not to open her black wings and envelope herself with them protectively as she faced the men who wanted to return her to the heavens.

"I will never go back, you cannot make me!" she spat, backing away and cringing when a twig snapped under foot, echoing slightly louder than necessary.

"You must come back, Princess Aldora; your parents will be very worried," the ex-prince implored, his large brown eyes glittering in a way that would usually enchant a girl but instead made Aldora sick inside.

Shaking her head, Aldora was shocked when a hand closed around her shoulder, not only catching onto her but setting her nerves on fire, telling her not to move. Silence was all that followed as the ex-prince scratched his head of silvery hair and the ex-Captain massaged his bulging stomach with his large fingers.

"Can I ask what's going on?" The voice was commanding, with just the right amount of threat woven in to stop anyone from trying to attack. His voice, however, reminded Aldora of the king's and it made her eyesight go black, her lungs unable to catch any air as she struggled to calm herself. "Why d'you want this girl?" he added curiously.

Before anyone could answer, a proud neigh rose up and all eyes were directed to the sky where a horse with four pairs of legs was flying, each hoof flailing in midair as the grey stallion came into land, tossing his head proudly. Aldora glowered at the horse before turning her attention to his rider who, inconveniently, was the King of Angels.

Aldora despised everything about her step-father from his perfect golden hair to his perfect green eyes to his perfect tanned skin to his perfect muscular body, everything about him radiated dominance, pride and beauty, the aura that had won over her mother. His hands twitched slightly on the reins, directing his unique horse with the smallest movements that seemed to have hidden strength behind them for the horse tossed his head but obeyed, his grey eyes gazing solemnly at Aldora.

"Hello Sleipnir, I should have known you would not keep a secret," Aldora hissed at the horse who lowered his head sheepishly.

Whilst living in the palace, Aldora had been given her own winged horse by the name of Moondusk, but often Aldora would visit Sleipnir who, unfortunately, was left alone at the back of the stables in a stall as large as her palace bedroom. Sometimes she would bring some cloud berries that she would steal from the gardens, but other times she would just stroke him and talk to him as the servants harnessed up Moondusk as slowly as they could. Sleipnir didn't speak often for his vocabulary was lacking in many words, but he would often nod his head along with what she said or snort in disagreement when he believed otherwise, and gradually the topics changed from sociable conversation to more personal talks like Aldora's dislike for the king or how people treated her strangely.

Clearly he wasn't as good a friend as she had believed.

"Do not blame Sleipnir, my daughter, he was only doing what he believed was best for your safety," the king offered kindly, leaning forward to deliver a pat on the horse's neck before dismounting, the grey stallion tossing his head and scraping a hoof. "We do not understand why you fled, my daughter, what have I - or your mother - ever done to cause you to act in such a way? Is the palace not nice, do we not treat you well? Please explain and your mother and I shall try to make things better for you."

Whilst often Aldora's glare would make people around her lower their eyes, the king was able to hold it just as strongly as her real father once had. "I fled, King Raymond, because you have done nothing but treat me like a prisoner!" Aldora snapped, retaliating his confusion with a look of disgust. "Do not give me that look, you know what I mean! I have never been allowed out of my room without an escort, I am only allowed to fly if it is by the back of a winged mare, I am not allowed to visit the land of the wingless children- I could go on for months but even then you would treat me the same! Now that I am a princess people who once bullied me for my wings now bow before me, people who once gave me looks of repulsion now line up to kiss my hand!"

"Is that not nice? Do you not prefer to be treated with respect?" the king frowned, the clear puzzlement that was etched into his features only making Aldora angrier.

"It is infuriating!" Aldora cried, irritation showing in her eyes and lacing her words as all watched the dispute between the two. "And all you do is call me your daughter but only ask what is wrong and how I am feeling when I run away! Is that what I must do to get any attention from my mother and you? Is that how I must earn your respect? It is exhausting and I hate it! Yes, that I right, I said 'hate' and I know it is a word of Hell but I _hate it_! Yes! I _hate_ it!"

Now a thunderous look was on the king's face as he ate up the ground between them in a single stride, catching her arm and glaring deep into her eyes. The cold and furious look in his eyes sent a shiver racing down Aldora's spine but she used all her energy to suppress it, returning his stare with one of equal rage.

"That is enough, Aldora!" he snarled, his dangerous side showing through and making all in the clearing lean backwards slightly, taken aback by the wrath that radiated off him, stronger than anything they had ever experienced. "I have done all I can for you and you dirty your tongue with such a word! You dirty your tongue, you dirty the air, you dirty their minds!" he waved his hands at the children behind her as if they were pure as newborn babes. "I will not stand for such behaviour. You are coming back to the palace and you are going to chose a husband at the ball whether you like it or not!"

Dragging her up to the horse, the king threw Aldora onto Sleipnir's back, the girl falling slightly but being stopped from tumbling to the ground by the stallion's friendly snout. They shared a sad look.

Even if Sleipnir had shared her secret, he had clearly still hoped she would succeed. Even if he had betrayed her, he was clearly still her friend.

"Excuse me, good king," the piper began, gesturing with his pan flute towards the princess as he spoke to the king, "but I believe a girl is entitled to her own decisions and opinions."

" _I_ believe it is none of your business, young man," the king bit, glowering at the piper before leaping onto Sleipnir's back and curving his arms around Aldora, lifting the reins. "It would do you good to let alone what is none of your business." And with that he clicked his tongue and the eight-legged horse leapt into the air, the ex-prince as well as the ex-Captain soaring behind them, with the piper watching from the ground.

* * *

 **So, was this good? I rewrote this about six times and finally decided that this one was good enough. Please comment and favourite. Her being taken back to the palace: plot twist! Unless of course, you were expecting that...that would be _AWKWARD_... Did you expect an evil king? He's actually quite kind, isn't he? Until he gets angry, of course. I'll try and update soon.**


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